Oktoberfest, Orphanage round 2 and Batik.

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This past weekend was a lot of fun. My first weekend to hang around and do things in town. On Friday night we were told that there was going to be a reggae band playing at this local, outdoor ,night club called Glacier. When we got there we were disapointed to hear that they were not palying, becasue there was too much going on in preparation for the next days festivities, Oktoberfest. So we sat down and grabbed a drink, looked over and notcied a rasta dude hanging out by himself, so we invited him over to join us. Turns out he was the lead singer and guitarist for the band we came to see, and he was bummed becasue his show got cancelled. So I asked him if he had his guitars, and he asked if I could play, and before I knew it I was playing, and singing bob marley with this rasta dude. Such a cool expereince, he had an amazing voice. AS I type this I am reminded of how kind all of the people are here. These people do not need a reason to be kind to you, they just are, and they have no reason to be rude to you, so they are not....it is truly an amazing sensation to experince how genuine these people are.

The morning was great, my first oppurtunity to sleep in since I have been here. Then in the afternoon we headed back to glacier for Oktoberfest. When we got there we were once again disapoined because there wasnt much going on, but as the day went on the place became packed and turned out to be a great day. Got to meet a lot of people from all of the world; this bar is kind of a melting pot of tourists and locals. The highlight of my day came when I heard about a competition called the Beer games, I had to participate. There were three rounds 1: A straight beer chug (mind you the beers here are a lot bigger then at home) 2: A whole beer through a 3 ft straw (beer was warm too) 3: Eat a hot dog and chug a beer. I won the first two rounds, and it was very exciting, becasue we were up on stage, as part of the entertainment. People cheering for my abilty to drink beer...kind of sad, but still awesome. When the third round came up, I was facing the favorite; a 300 lb. + african guy who looked like he has been doing this stuff for a while. In my mind I thougt I had the advantage though, becasue I was going to eat the hot dod like they do in the Nathans hot dog eating comps: Dog first and dip the bun in liquid. As the mcee countined down for us to start "moja, mbili, tatu!" I was nervous but confident. I ate the hot dog down pretty quick and actually thought I had it in the bag, I then chugged like I never chugged before, I thought record time for sure, but I look to my left and bam...bubba was done, with his hands and mug in the air. Huge bummer, but second place isnt too bad considering there was 600 ppl.+ there. And oh yea this was the first annual Moshi Oktoberfest, so I will go down as the Mzungu who almost did it at the first annual.
During the competition, I expereinced something really interesting; all of the africans in the audience cheered for the african competitors, and noone cheered for the mzungus, oh well, I guess when it comes to drinking games there is still a racial barrier.

On sunday a couple of us headed back to the Neema Orphange, becasue we were so touched during our first visit. So we hired a cab driver to bring us there and back. We also stopped to pick up some toys and soap for the kids, becasue apprently they had insufficient quantites of both. When we got there it was just like last time, all of the children immediately run at you and jump on you, some og them covered in pee and some covered in food, but you cant resist them, when you realize that they are jumping on you becasue they lack so much attention and love, and this is their only oppurtunity for it. We spent nearly 8 hours there, trying the help the nuns who operate it. I give those women so much credit, becasue after just three or so hours I was exhausted (the beer games from the night before didnt help). Like the lst time, there was one or two children who I really spent a lot of time with, and definitely became attached. If you try to put them down, they just go limp, to make you feel bad, forcing you to pick them back up.
At lunch time the Nuns surprised us with some food, the girls I was with were not to excited, and didnt eat it, so, my friend Will and I had to compensate, and eat double. The food ended up being pretty good, it was banana stew. It is actually a pretty popular dish around here, the bananas are not sweet though, kind of like potatoes. What made me nervous was the mystery meat that was in there among the flavorless bananas. Turned out being fine, no stomach troubles.
Later that night I was very tired and passed right out.

Today was a great day, we made and played with playdough at school, and the kids loved it. It really got them to start thinking creatively, which is uncommon for them, so it was a great thing to see. This afternoon CCS hired a local artist to come by and teach us how to make batik. It was awesome, he was really good, and was very patient with us mzungus. I made a little piece, and it came out great, but wow it is such a long and tedious process. A great day!!

More soon!! (sorry for the poor spelling, hope it all makes sense, had to rush again)

-Nick

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